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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Can You Be a Hero As a Project Manager?

When
you work as a project manager you will get plenty of opportunities to
work hard and resolve difficult problems. However, if you are hoping to
occasionally be a hero as well then will this job leave you
disappointed? Maybe not, as you can still do a great job and feel like a
hero at times if you go about your work in the right way.Be a Great Manager
Once of the best ways to feel good about what you do is to look after
your team members. This is a vital part of the project manager role but
one which too many people overlook. There are many different ways to be
a top class manager and you will definitely have the chance to put them
into practice at some point in your career. For a start, you can look
after everyone’s training needs and make sure that they progress in
their careers the way they want to. Not everyone has the benefit of
working with a helpful and understanding manager so your team members
are sure to appreciate what you do for them. Apart from this, you can
give them the kind of tasks they really want and make sure that you give
them credit when it is due without leaving them exposed to criticism
from stakeholders and other people from outside the team.Give the End Users What They Want
When you first start looking at solutions who do you think about? If
the end users in the business area are your top concern then you are
making a strong start to the project and could end up as a hero in their
eyes. A lot of end users are very suspicious of project staff because
they think that they only want to foist unsuitable solutions on them.
After all, a project manager is liable to give the solution which best
suit them rather than the one which best suits the end users. If you can
look at things in the opposite way and go the extra mile to deliver
something genuinely useful then your work will be well appreciated by
the people who get most benefit from it. There are few better feelings
for a project manager than that of knowing that they have delivered
exactly what was needed at the right time. Of course, if you opt for the
easy life and don’t take into account the end users then they aren’t
going to see you as being much of a hero.Be Someone Your Boss Can Depend Upon
You probably think that being solid and dependable at work is a bit
boring and certainly is a long way from being a hero. However, your boss
will be looking for project managers they can count on when the chips
are down. It will be a fantastic feeling to know that they don’t need to
worry about any extremely difficult project which comes along. Your
boss might not tell you very often how important you are but if it is
clear to you that you are a valuable member of the team then this should
tell its own story. One day they might tell you what a great job you
are doing but even if that day never comes you can still read between
the lines and understand that you are the kind of project hero they know
that they can always rely upon to save the day.Feel Good About Yourself
Of course, the person whose opinion matters most is you. If you leave
work each day knowing that you have done your very best to get things
done in the right way then no one else can stop you feeling like a hero.
There are many jobs in the world which never give you the chance to
feel like this and I have worked in a few of them. However, once you
enter into the project world you get the chance to do a great job and
feel fantastic about it. It is about following all of the previous
points but also about knowing that you are right for the job and that it
is right for you. This is a great feeling and something which many
people never get to experience in their lives. If you are lucky enough
to have discovered that the project manager role is ideal for you then
you should make the most of it and enjoy the feeling of being a hero.